Checkoff Takes Wine & Food Fest by Storm

The beef booth was a hit at the 5th annual Wine & Food Festival at National Harbor in Maryland, May 4- 5! The beef checkoff, through the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI) returned to the Wine & Food Festival for their fourth year in attendance alongside Roseda Beef.

National Beef Ambassador Team members were able to educate the over 10,000 expo attendees on the versatility of beef and the variety of lean cuts available. Festival-goers had the opportunity to test their Beef I.Q. through various games, including Pin the Cut on the Cow to win coveted “I Love Beef’ swag.

Mike Brannon, of Roseda Beef, a farm located just outside Baltimore, Md., sampled portions of their dry-aged Angus cattle for attendees. Roseda and the beef checkoff worked to distribute a little more than 7,000 samples of delicious sirloin Pitt Beef to hungry attendees.

Checkoff Executive Chef Dave Zino took advantage of the season’s freshest ingredients to create a colorful steak salad which exemplified the versatility of the Top Sirloin Steak. Chef Zino took the Viking stage by storm on Saturday as he prepared a spring time favorite!

Pennsylvania Beef Ambassador, Olivia Rush, an Animal Science student entering her junior year at Penn State, enjoyed her first event working at the festival. Rush says she “had a great time’ working for the beef checkoff and “it was exciting to see so many people who were interested in including beef in their diets!’ Rush was also eager to work alongside the National Beef Ambassador Team members at the event.

The National Beef Ambassador program, which began in 1988, selects five young adults ages 17-20, to train as future spokes persons and leaders in the industry. The 2013 National Beef Ambassador team consisted of: Emma Jumper (Arkansas), Chandler Mulvaney (Alabama), Katie Stroud (California), Erin Morrison (Minnesota), and Jacquelyn Brown (Oregon). Several members of the National Team encouraged the crowd to have some fun with the lively mascot, Miss Patty Melt, as she interacted with the attendees along the piers on the Potomac waterfront. Be sure to check out photos of Patty Melt and her adventures at the festival.

The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.

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